Our memories coincide. A silver lining for MA might be that these new Republican voters might have a lot of the same values the “old” MA Republican Party espoused. Perhaps MA can come back, from the ground up, by getting sensible conservatives elected on the local level.
Yes. But the greatest impediment to Conservative growth in the state remains the elected leadership in the GOP. They want nothing more than to be a small, elitist ultraleft clique of the superrich, utterly indistinguishable from the Democrats in policy.
MA remains hyper-Democrat in its elected makeup, but not because of the Democrats, but because the leftists within the Republican Party are content to have it exactly like that, so long as that same clique never loses its power. Same goes for the national party.
Frankly, the national party should implement a policy relating explicitly to the state parties. Produce results or you’re fired. No more of the same people holding on for decades in party sinecures. State chairs, committeepersons, et al. You have 2-4 years to increase (if in the minority) or maintain (if in the majority) your elected officials. Failure to do so will result in your expulsion from your positions and installation of the challenger from the prior contest. Make them get off their asses and work.
If the state party elites refuse, decertify them as a legitimate organization, and that they cannot use “Republican” in any official capacity. If they don’t like that, they can join the Democrats and be honest about their true ideology for a change.